ABSTRACT
In some ways it would not be unfair to regard Jean-Jacques Rousseau as a ‘late developer’ - and a very late developer at that. “We have seen that in his infatuation for Madame d’Houdetot he was, so to speak, working out of his blood feelings that should have had their day in late adolescence. Similarly, in his writings, there was the same maturing process and this shows itself finally in his masterpiece, Émile. The 60maturing included the development and enlargement of his religious ideas. To many who read about the life of Jean-Jacques Rousseau it comes as a shock, almost a revolting shock, to discover that, in the year 1754 ‘to ingratiate himself with the Council of Geneva’, as his enemies put it, he re-recanted and underwent a ceremony in Geneva making himself once again a Protestant. But if this is seen as part of the evolution of Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s religious views, which find ťtill expression in a specialized section of Émile, then the disgust at his changeability fades out. Especially is this true if one finds oneself in sympathy with the religious views of Rousseau’s maturity as expressed in Émile.
